Only Entertainment Tonight's Samantha Harris was in Belfast, Ireland, with the boys of One Direction and asked Styles, point blank: Is it about Taylor?

"Obviously, you write a lot of stuff from personal experience, but it doesn't necessarily have to be so literal," the 21-year-old explained. "People can interpret a lot of different things in different ways. And I'm not going to tell someone it's not about what they think it's about, because I think the whole point is - it's about whatever it means to you."

Made in the A.M. is out now, marking the band's fifth album in just five years and their first without founding member Zayn Malik's involvement.

"I think in any field of work when you lose someone on your team, obviously, it's hard, but the positive take on the situation is we felt we definitely got closer as a group," Louis Tomlinson confessed. "We sat down and spoke about it -- this is something we all still want to do, so in the end we actually bonded together tighter, I think."

Missing from the sit-down, however, was Liam Payne, still battling an illness that caused the group's first-ever show cancellation in October. "It was very disappointing for us," Styles told ET, "but when someone's unwell and you're unable to perform, you can't do it."

Thankfully, Payne was back on his feet the next day and feeling well enough to finish out the tour and embark on worldwide promotion for the new album.

While every one of One Direction's previous albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, Made in the A.M.has some stiff competition this week. Justin Bieber released his new album, Purpose, on the same day, and industry insiders have speculated this race will be too close to call.

"We've had albums come out at the same time as Rihanna," Niall Horan playfully reminded us. "I just think it's been made into a big deal online with the whole Beliebers and the Directioners thing -- they love a battle and stuff -- but it's fine, there's really no competition. ... We've worked hard on our album and we just want people to go up and get it. And we hope they enjoy it, 'cause we enjoyed making it."